Monday, November 20, 2017

Minkowski's Object, briefly (Halifax)

The BGO reported a partial observation. Sounds like it was able to squeeze in a few images before clouds rolled in. Not much better than the run on 14 Oct.

I had requested NGC 541 in Cetus. A galaxy within a group that appears to be known as Minkowski's Object.

Minkowski's Object in luminance

Luminance only, 60 seconds subexposures, 10 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, GIMP. North is up; east is left.

Two of the colour channels were not gathered. There's a satellite in this image. There's a bad gradient. But I don't really care. I just imaged this region for fun.

NGC 541 is the oval fuzzy, with the bright core, left of centre. aka Arp 133.

North-north-west of 541 is a tiny round lint ball: LEDA 1121627.

Right or west of 1121627 is another tiny faint round fuzzy: LEDA 1121698.

LEDA 1120269 is due west of 541, quite a distance away. Also tiny and round and faint.

Between 541 and 1120269 is LEDA 73954. It is a bit larger and brighter than the LEDA.

South-west of 541 is an edge-on galaxy. Doesn't look like a classic spiral. SkyTools 3 Pro says NGC 535 is a lenticular.

Much further, near the bottom-right of the frame, is another object that looks identical to 535: MCG 0-4-121. It's rotated 90 degrees.

A bit to the south of these is a larger lenticular: MCG 0-4-129.

East of 0-4-129 is UGC 996. It looks similar albeit a bit smaller. Oriented east-west.

South of these two, between them, is a slightly larger spiral. NGC 538.

Due south of 541 is an almond shape with a bright core: UGC 1003.

South-east of 1003 is a round fuzzy. This is PGC 5306.

LEDA 1119267 is close to 541, to the south-east. It is very faint.

Due east of 541 is a tiny oval. LEDA 86298.

North-east of 541 is the pair of large galaxies, NGC 545 (north) and NGC 547. Together they are Arp 308. They look like classic elliptical galaxies. Bright!

North-east of these two is a small oval shape: LEDA 169816.

East of the twin stars is MCG 0-4-140. A small elongated fuzzy with a bright centre.

North of the twins is a bright round ball of light: NGC 543.

Wow. Lots happening in this area.

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